New book tutors future presidents and public on science behind the...(think through technology and make sugges...)
think through technology and make suggestions," Muller said. "There is nothing like that anymore."
The need for such advice was demonstrated in 2003, said Muller, when President George W. Bush touted a future hydrogen economy in his State of the Union address, despite the fact that there are many problems with the use of hydrogen as a transportation fuel.
"There was nobody there to stop him and say, "No, this isn't going to work,'" Muller said. "I doubt that he knew, for example, that hydrogen is currently made from fossil fuels in a process that emits greenhouse gases, or that liquid hydrogen contains only a quarter the energy of gasoline per gallon, severely limiting an auto's range."
A year later in Bush's State of the Union message, there was no mention of the hydrogen economy, said Muller, who suspects that the president learned some physics in the interim.
Muller's book, officially published Aug. 4, is an outgrowth of a popular UC Berkeley class by the same name taught by Muller since 2000 that has achieved fame through freely-available Webcasts. One Iraq war soldier called it a "lifeline" during his deployment in Iraq, saying that the course teaches "the basics needed to be an informed, critical-thinking citizen of our country." In a poll taken last semester by the Daily Californian, UC Berkeley's student newspaper, Muller's class was voted "Best of Berkeley." Muller has received e-mail from people in 48 states and 84 countries thanking him for the Webcasts.
Despite a class enrollment of 500 students per semester - the maximum the lecture hall can hold - and many online followers, Muller decided he wanted an even larger audience. Hence, a textbook - currently used at 10 other universities - and now a book for the general public that covers the physics behind major issues facing the country today: terrorism, nuclear power and nuclear bombs, energy and global warming, and space.
Muller's book dispels many m
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| Contact: Robert Sanders rsanders@berkeley.edu 510-643-6998 University of California - Berkeley Source:Eurekalert |
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